“Just”

This morning, I hopped on an fx to run down to Ortigas for a work-date with R. I managed to grab one taking a U-turn on the road leading to our subd., so it was pretty much empty and we only picked up two other passengers before we got to Floodway. (Not the place in the pic).

Once we were there, our fx driver transferred us to a waiting fx that only needed three more passengers, so it could leave. Hurrah, we could be on our way early, so we switched up.

Once inside, one of us handed Php 25 to the terminal keeper, which is the standard fare for that route. “It’s 30, at the terminal,” the keeper called back. “5 pesos more.” Another keeper, the one who had guided us from our first fx, came running up. “Ako na bahala (I’ll take care of it),” he said. “They transferred from another fx.” So all of us who transferred simply paid Php 25, and that was the end of it.

I suppose it might not seem like a great deal to some; he paid “just” Php 15 for us transferees. But then, he didn’t have to: we’d each have to pay “just” Php 5 more, sharing the load, even. But he chose to be concerned about the fact that we’d been expecting to pay only Php 25 before we were transferred, and chose to take responsibility. Shout-out to him.